Thoughts on Remix

In a sequence of serendipitous timing, I found myself reading Lawrence Lessig’s Remix over the course of NDSU’s Red River Graduate Conference, where I presented a paper that addressed what I now think can be framed as a genre of remix: literary tattoos, wherein readers take selected passages from literary works and incorporate them into their bodies via the act of tattooing.  Over the course of my presentation I mentioned some authors who have gone on record expressing their concern—and, in some cases, outright disapproval—of fans taking too much creative leeway with their texts.  An author I mentioned specifically was George RR Martin, creator of the Song of Ice and Fire series, currently taking HBO by storm.

Martin is an interesting man and a talented writer, with an active website and an extensive record of ‘Con appearances.  He is NOT a fan of fanficiton: a genre consisting of fans (book fans, TV show fans, movies, anime, etc) using the universe and characters of a published author to write their own stories.  Martin speaks to fanfiction directly in the Q & A section of his website:

Q:  I want to be a writer. Can you give me any advice?

A:  The most important thing for any aspiring writer, I think, is to read! And not just the sort of thing you're trying to write, be that fantasy, SF, comic books, whatever. You need to read everything. Read fiction, non-fiction, magazines, newspapers. Read history, historical fiction, biography. Read mystery novels, fantasy, SF, horror, mainstream, literary classics, erotica, adventure, satire. Every writer has something to teach you, for good or ill. (And yes, you can learn from bad books as well as good ones -- what not to do)

And write. Write every day, even if it is only a page or two. The more you write, the better you'll get. But don't write in my universe, or Tolkien's, or the Marvel universe, or the Star Trek universe, or any other borrowed background. Every writer needs to learn to create his own characters, worlds, and settings. Using someone else's world is the lazy way out. If you don't exercise those "literary muscles," you'll never develop them.

While reading Remix, I immediately thought of Martin.  Lessig talks about Souza’s tendency to “romanticizing culture” (27), about his fear that “people would be less connected to, and hence practiced in, creating that culture” (27) with the advent of the phonograph and copy-able music.  Similarly, lawyer Charles Sims is quoted with regards to his feelings on “original creativity” :

“I can’t say strongly enough that I think what Larry is really fundamentally focused on…[-]this parasitic reuse[-] is such a terrible diversion of young people’s talent…I think that if you have young film people you should be encouraging them to make their films and not to simply spend all of their time diddling around with footage that other people have made at great expense, to create stuff that’s not very interesting.  There’s a fundamental failure of imagination…” (91). 

Lessig’s point with regards to Souza is that the man was correct to fear the loss of RW culture, but wrong to assume that technology will always be the force keeping it down.  Remix, the artform of RW culture, is possible only through the use of digital technology, which will change us from a RO consuming culture to one capable of creating anew.  Lessig’s point with regards to Sims and others like him—I am going to include Martin in that category—is that they erroneously believe “original creativity” does NOT include the act of remixing.  This has obvious ties to the authorship definitions we’ve studied all semester, particularly the romantic, single-author, creative-genius-working-in-solitude view, which many argue does not truly exist.  

So for that reason, I find it interesting to compare Martin’s attitude toward fanficiton with his own work.  For example, here’s an article from The New Yorker on the origins of Martin’s series:

“In 1996, he published a novel of seven hundred pages, “A Game of Thrones,” the first volume of a projected trilogy called “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The series chronicles the struggle for power among several aristocratic families in the Seven Kingdoms, an imaginary medieval nation. In a genre crowded with stale variations on what Joseph Campbell called “the hero’s journey,” with plots distilled from ancient legends, Martin took his inspiration from history instead of from mythology; he based his tale, loosely, on the Wars of the Roses, the bloody dynastic struggles in medieval England. Compared with most epic fantasy fiction, Martin’s story contained relatively little magic, and it felt dangerous, lusty, and real.”

And in this interview, Martin himself speaks to the influence of history and historical fiction on his work:

“It's definitely a fantasy novel. It has dragons and so forth in it. It does have the feel of historical fiction. I love history. I wanted to get a lot of sense of history in A Storm of Swords and the other books and some of the feel of historical fiction. Historical fiction is wonderful to read, but the only problem I have with historical fiction is that I know too much history. So I always know what's going to happen. So you're reading a novel about the War of the Roses and no matter how good or bad it is, you know who is going to win. With this sort of thing you can take people by surprise. It reads like historical fiction, it feels like historical fiction but you don't know how it's going to come out.”

So for Martin, taking elements of history like the War of the Roses (Lancaster = Lannister; York = Stark) does not violate the principles of original creativity—it’s not “lazy,” in his mind.  But his work is read-only, and his fans must not attempt to interact with it by writing.  I suppose we are all fortunate that nobody’s yet found a way to make history RO.    

Don’t get me wrong—I love Martin’s work.  But I do not support the distinctions he is drawing.  One would think he would welcome fan interest in his work, particularly given the lengthy waits between novels.  And, as Lessig asks: what is remix hurting?  Fanfiction is never going to take money out of Martin’s pocket, nor do I buy the idea of readers abandoning his work in favor of a fanfiction-only diet.  And I disagree with the idea that a young writer exploring Martin’s world via fanfiction is not exercising a literary muscle.        

Question For Class:

Do you find yourself more aligned with Lessing’s “legalize it” take on remix, or Martin’s “it’s lazy” perspective?